The liberalism and the new interprets of Brazil

Abstract

As an autonomous discipline, Brazilian Political Thinking is permeated by debates involving the influences that prevailed in the formation of the national state, as well as its impact on the historical path dependence of the performance of political institutions. Recent public debates, especially in the press, have reanalyzed the approach of this relevant theme, notably the controversy involving the political scientist Marcus Melo and the sociologist Jessé de Souza. The present article scrutinizes the positions expressed by each one of the polemicists mentioned, connecting them with the already rich tradition on the subject. The main conclusion is that the controversy analyzed still reverberates the deep division in this field of study on the adoption of the basic presuppositions of liberalism, aggravated by the strong illiberal tradition that permeates the historical-institutional trajectory of the Latin American countries, including Brazil.